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Sound the trumpet, beat the drum, Z335

Introduction

Sound the trumpet, beat the drum was the last of the three Odes that Purcell wrote between 1685 and 1687 to celebrate the birthday of James II. Queen Mary had been in Bath from 16 August to 6 October, but on 11 October she and King James returned from Windsor to Whitehall, ready for the King’s birthday celebrations on 14 October. The diarist Narcissus Luttrell recorded in his diary that the celebrations appeared to have been on a smaller scale than in previous years, there being ‘no bonefires, being so particularly commanded’. The Ode is contained in a surprisingly large number of sources: one later version (the Kent manuscript), produced after Purcell’s death, used a totally new text and adds trumpets and timpani to the orchestra. However, Purcell’s 1687 version is scored only for strings and, with the names of many of the singers recorded in the manuscripts, we can see that the first performance was a fairly small-scale affair. After a splendid two-movement overture, Mr Abell, the alto, sets the Ode off in suitably military style, punctuated by interjections from both the bass and ritornelli from the strings. By 1687 Purcell was beginning to cut down on the instrumental ritornelli that concluded so many movements in the early Odes, tending instead to move straight into a contrasting vocal section, but the alto duet ‘Let Caesar and Urania live’, set over a two-bar ground bass, is transformed into glorious four-part string writing. The bass, Mr Bowman, must have been an extraordinary singer, for in the solo ‘While Caesar like the morning star’ Purcell utilizes a range from high E down to bottom D. Equally extraordinary is the Chaconne which Purcell includes at the mid-point of the Ode: this is as fine an example of the form as he ever wrote, using a multitude of compositional devices and including a marvellous minor section. Purcell must have been especially pleased with this movement for, four years later, he re-used it in King Arthur.

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Crown the year and crown the day
While distant shores their tribute pay,
While never-failing Thames shall glide
With treasures and pleasures renew’d with each tide.
To Caesar all hail, unequall’d in arms,
To Urania all hail, unequall’d in charms.

Let Caesar and Urania live,
Let all delights the stars can give
Upon the royal pair descend,
Let discord to the shades be driven,
While earth and sky our song attend,
And thus our loyal vows ascend:
O, O preserve ’em, Heaven!

What greater bliss can Fate bestow,
While Caesar rules these isles
And bright Urania smiles?
The spheres above no better sway can show,
Jove is Heaven’s Caesar,
Caesar Jove below.
With plenty surrounding and loyalty sounding
Iô paeans of joy,
We’ll pay our devotion
To the monarch of Britain and lord of the Ocean.

While Caesar like the morning star
Our British sphere shall grace,
No more alarms of rebel war
Shall Albion’s beauteous soil deface.
His arms did first the rebel host confound,
His godlike mercy next the conquest crowned.
His fame, like incense, mounts the skies,
While never, never more to rise
Pride and Discord headlong go
Down to the deep abyss below.

To Urania and Caesar delights without measure,
With empire no trouble, and safety with pleasure;
Since the joys we possess to their goodness we owe,
’Tis but just our best wishes like that should o’erflow.